Hello, my external drive(model # WD1600C032) is lighting up fine but my computer says it is not recognizing the drive and asking to reformat it ? I downloaded the Lifeguard Diagnostics program and ran the quick and extended tests and both were fine. I know its not my USB because I plugged a different newer WD external drive in and it works fine.
My computer isn’t showing the external drive in Windows Explorer either. The hard drive is lighting up and running but not being recognized by my computer.
Is my data gone or is there anything else I can do ?
It is possible that the files got corrupted. If you need to recover them, it might be possible with the help of a data recovery program; several options should appear using Google. If you don’t need to recover your files you can just format the My Book from the disk management window so you can keep using it normally. Follow the link below for the steps.
How to partition and format a WD drive on Windows (8, 7, Vista, XP) and Mac OSX
Does the drive show in Disk Management and what does it say there? There are some recovery software options but the drive has to show in Disk Management for them to work. You can also try booting from a Linux Live CD and see if you can access the data there and copy it.
The WD Community was created for Users, such as yourself, to help one another, and to share your experiences and ideas with one another. If you are looking for technical support from WD, you will need to contact them directly.
